James Gurney

This daily weblog by Dinotopia creator James Gurney is for illustrators, plein-air painters, sketchers, comic artists, animators, art students, and writers. You'll find practical studio tips, insights into the making of the Dinotopia books, and first-hand reports from art schools and museums.

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Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Among Alphonse Mucha’s greatest achievements in his mature years were his seven pictures from the Lord’s Prayer, known as the “Pater Noster” or “Le Pater.”

He created a separate image for each line of the prayer. Above are the images for “Thy kingdom come,” and “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

Mucha visualized the familiar prayer as a universal expression of humankind’s relationship with the divine, mixing traditional Catholic devotion with an Asiatic-tinged occult mysticism.
Above: “Lead us not into temptation” and the cover.

The Century magazine in 1904 described Mucha’s unique conception of God as “no longer the benign or wrathful Father, but a mysterious Being whose shadow fills the earth. Nature is personified as a luminous, adolescent giant, and Love descends from heaven in the guise of a woman.”

EZ, yes, I had a bunch of books on Mucha, and some of them showed one or two of the "Le Pater" images, but I never knew what they were about. The new exhibition catalog published by Belvedere has all seven nicely reproduced with Mucha's explanations.

Apparently they were Mucha's favorites of all his illustration work. One of the reasons he did them was to change gears from the Art Nouveau design style guides he had been doing, which just led to people saying "Can you design me a set of silverware sort of like the ones in your style book?"

You said that he is "mixing traditional Catholic devotion with an Asiatic-tinged occult mysticism". In fact it's totally different. Mucha a this time of his life was already a master freemason (initiated in Paris, in a lodge of the Grand Orient of France) and the Pater is probably the most masonic of his works. In the french version (the other one is in czech and been "cleaned" of all the masonic references) he is quite clear about it, always naming God as an "superior entity", as french irregular freemasonry does. Nothing really asiatic in "Le Pater" only deeply spiritual and masonic. a very good book have been done about this work only, called "Mucha, le Pater. Illustrations pour le Notre Père" by the somogy art editions with the collaboration of the Neumann foundation. Hope this will help. Thanks again. Christophe

As Mucha's countryman, I have to add a note: all of the Czech artists (or any other small nation's, for that matter) that achieved world fame were the ones who lived and worked abroad. Other examples include, in the case of Czechs, director Milos Forman, writer Milan Kundera and others. There have been equally talented and capable people who chose to remain at home and are now half-forgotten even in their coutries. There are treasures waiting to be unearthed. Therefore I think it is great that Mr. Gurney often mentions for example Russian painters like Levitan or Shishkin (this is not to say that Russia is a small country, but it is true that its cultural history is largely ignored in the West, especially in visual art).

Kiwifrog: You're right that Mucha was greatly influenced by Freemasonry. My use of the phrase "Asiatic-tinged" is loosely quoted from Century magazine's 1904 contemporary account of Mucha's mysticism: "...this element, coupled with an active interest in the occult, gives a sacerdotal, Asiatic tinge to panel, poster, or painting." Japanese influences especially very strongly inspired decorative arts during Mucha's period.

Mucha is an amazing artist! His work demonstrates the convergence of the decorative arts, illustration, abstraction, and classical figurative drawing/ painting… and shows how important good design is to any style. His body of work is powerfully creative and technically consistently very high. One of the giants in my opinion. -RQ